Life was simpler and that I was better at it.
I also wish my blog had music playing on loop.
Archive for July, 2009
I think I’ve been academically raised up to be afraid of that word. Not because it’s anything bad, but because so much is often loss at the cost of trying to gain more of it. Now of course I believe that the Scriptures, though deeply aged are never antiquated, and that the notion of relevance is in the message rather than the medium, so long as the medium is sufficient to carry the message. However, relevance is something that I’ve been learning to engage because you must engage it if you are aiming to talk to kids and teens alike.
What do I mean by relevance? Certainly, I am not speaking of a watered down gospel, an entertainment centric approach to people, nor a flash bang altar call accompanied by cathartic ccm melodies for the hormonally melodramatic. When I say relevance, I mean, how do I speak the deepest most core truths of the Scriptures and teach them in a way that even the youngest junior higher finds breathtaking? If I am boring the kids, I am either failing at communicating the glory of God, or I am failing to communicate my own passion about it. I need to speak with a relevant voice, with relevant words, and in a relevant attitude.
Now hold that thought. This generation of youngsters relates to one thing: Passion (at least for the most part). And what makes it difficult for the older generation teaching them, is that so many messages that stir up the kids are based on vague or hodgepodge Scriptural reference with a whole lot of creative bungling. In other words, hip pastors delivering sermons with amazingly little substance packaged and / or illustrated in a very cool and creative way. Throw in a story about rhinos charging and mushrooms sprouting, add a dash of testimonial from gangbangers turned Christian, and you get a big crowd of kids, frenzied up into a mindless christian-esque passion.
But what if you want to teach those very same kids the timeless truths of sanctified living, of God’s plan for Israel and the church? or even the core concept of imputed righteousness in Justification? These are Biblical teachings that call for us to not be creative with the text, but rather to be faithful with it. The pulpit is not High school English class after all. And yet… this is the very point where relevance must be claimed. Yes, Amen, we must never forfeit the accuracy of doctrinal teachings for the gimmicks of teen-centric youth-speakers, but we must fight to gain the attention of youths too. To put it more tersely we are searching for Relevance without Rhetoric.
I am still waiting for the day when the youth of today’s churches cry out to their pastors, “Do not bring us your Creative Writing paper! brings us a Sermon!”
One of the things that I absolutely love to see in people is that precious desire to learn the lessons of life and godliness, day after day.
Generally speaking, It is my belief that most people (in this country) are passing through their lives on Default. In other words, their existence become a constant and may I say boring, flow of stimulus and established reactions. No real changes there. It’s quite rare to find someone who considers daily how and where within their personal lives, they can grow towards becoming a better person (all nuances of “better” entailed). And the tragedy of this is that there is a sort of unspoken finality to the Default mindset in people. Once people pass through those precocious teenage years and step over the quarter life mark, something interesting happens. People suddenly begin to see themselves as a set package of traits that have become fixed like a finished puzzle, its pieces rigidly locked in place.
But that is not how it should be. People grow physically, until they die. So I ask why can’t we aim and strive to grow spiritually and emotionally too? We are not a set package of traits. The puzzle continues beyond the horizon. A reticent thirty year old can still become a gregarious forty year old. And who is to say that the man who treats women poorly cannot turn his life around and learn to respect them? But enough preaching. This is not a message to be told from one man to another, rather it is a principal to be repeated within the individual. And with this, we all must recognize that we have not yet reached what we will become. And thus what we should become is still within our reach.
(concerning the resurrected and thus perfected life) “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
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On a seperate and completely unrelated note. I would also like to mention that I think Music is one of those few things that express the human soul and disposition far better than simple prose. Is that obvious? There are times when I agonize over how to communicate my awe or internal trembling over some truth or epiphany, and only when I hear a song, or an appropriate melody do I feel those secret words and elusive phrases, which were so frustratingly pent up, released as notes and cadences. I don’t know if I’m alone on this, but sometimes I think I understand why JRR Tolkien wrote the creation account of Silmarillion as a majestic and holy Song. Because of course the world would find its meaning and significance borne upon the shoulders of a melody. Who could imagine otherwise? Because even though Words can touch the depths, Music can carry us into them.
